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' M. W. HENIUS.

Woven Corset.

INVEN-TOR:

N.PEIERS, PNQTO LITHOGRAPHEIL WASHINGTON. Dr 04 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

" MAX W. HENIUS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

WOVEN CORSET.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 239,096, dated March 22, 1881.

Application filed December 3, 1880. (Model) T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, MAX W. HENIUs, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Woven Corsets; and 1 do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnished and forming a part thereof, is a clear, true, and com plete description of my invention.

It is well known that what are termed stitched .or seamed corsets are specially liable to rupture from strains incident to their use, because of the numerous seams, someone or more of which may be more or less faulty, but that they are nevertheless deemed desirable because of the neatness of finish afforded bythe machine-stitchin g, and specially because the bone-pockets, having strongly stitched sides, firmly and snugly maintain the bones therein. It is also well known that the class of goods known as woven corsets are practically free from liability to rupture, because the fabric isintegral throughout each half of the corset, the bone-pockets having always heretofore been formed by weaving the fabric in separate double ply, and the intervening spaces occupied by solid weaving. In such corsets the fabric at the edges of the bone-pockets is not so firmly compacted as when properly stitched,

and therefore the bones are less firmly confined; and although this is of little importance with relation to such bones as are not unduly subject to frequent strains or bendings in use, it is certainly of importance with relation to those which are almost constantly subjected to such severe strains as are incident to the extraordinary or unusual movements of the wearer. It is also well known that the prominent non-ornamental feature heretofore characteristic of the woven corset has led to its being practically ignored by certain desirable classes of trade, and the adverse effect of this feature has no doubt been supplemented by the comparative cheapness of the goods and their wide adoption by certain other classes of trade. It is also well known that individual wearers have special likes or dislikes for certain particular assemblin gs of bones, and also for their particular arrangement with reference to each other; and as the variations in such particulars in woven corsets are accompanied the sewed or seamed corset. In other words,

my corset has the strength and evenness of finish due to an-integral fabric. It has, to any desired extent, the finish due to the machinestitching of the sewed corset. Its bonepockets have the firm and well'defined edges of the pockets in sewed corsets; and this feature may be present throughout the corset or limited to such portionsthereof as involve the greatest bend or strain upon the bonestherein. It contains (or may not, as desired, in each case) bones in such localities and in such lines and in such series and variety of arrangement with reference to each other as were never before known or deemed practicable in a woven corset, but which have long been deemed desirable in sewed corsets. possesses (or may not, as desired, in each case) certain ornamental features not heretofore deemed practicable in woven corsets--as, for instance, the introduction into a corset composed mainly of cotton of sections of half satin or silk or linen, with or Without figured effects interwoven, and thrown upon the outer surface of the corset at those portions in which pockets are to be located, and subsequently formed in part by machine-stitching.

My woven corset is novel in that it has hipgore bones, and also in that more or less of its bone-pockets are formed both by weaving and by stitching -i. 0., the front and rear sides of said pockets, as a whole, are formed by \veaving the integral fabric double and separated, so as to afford what might be termed a large pocket, which is thereafter subdivided into any desired number of. bone-pockets by lines of machine-stitchin g.

To more particularly describe my invention, I will refer to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a side view of a corset embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the corset on line y y of Fig. 1 as it appears when taken from the loom. Fig. 3 is the same view of the finished corset.

For purposes of illustration, I have selected a style of corset embodying a front hip portion, stayed by a series of curved bones, extending from a point near the waist, at what may be termed the side sections, (although integral with the rest of one-half of the corset,)

forward and downward to the lower edge of the corset, for affording support to the abdomen adjacent to its junction with the front of the hip. It is to be distinctly understood, however, that I make no claim to have devised this particular arrangement of bones in a sooalled hip-gore, because sewed corsets, as made prior to my present invention, have embodied not only vertical stiffeners above the hip-gores, but also inclined or diagonal bones or stiffeners below the said vertical stiffeners, and extending downward and forward; but no such complex arrangement of bones has ever heretofore been embodied in a woven corset, on account of the practical difficulties involved in weaving short pockets on diagonal lines or pockets on curved lines, especially when coupled with the complex outward graduated swells or curves involved in the formation of that portion which in a sewed corset is correctly termed the hip-gore, and which is also sometimes so termed in a woven corset, notwithstanding the fact that the fabric is seamless.

The corset shown is woven as heretofore, with the exception of the side section or portion, A, which extends from the upper edge say, beneath the arm of the wearer-to the lower edge, and widened at that point so as to extend forward and include the swell which overlies the front of the hip of the wearer. Instead of having this portion A of the corset so woven as to afford separate bone-pockets, the fabric is so woven as to afford the space a, Fig. 2, which is subdivided by the lines of stitches 12, Figs. 1 and 3, for the reception of the bones c. The steel and back-bone pockets are formed as heretofore, the fabric at each side being woven solidly and of such width as y will enable it to be folded upon itself and upble features incident to the firm holding of the bones and their complex arrangement to an unlimited extent.

In view of the fact that a woven corset has never heretofore contained the short hip-gore bones, and as their presence in such corsets renders them specially desirable for fleshy persons, because of the well-known strength and durability of the woven corset, and also because of the support afforded by the saidbones to the abdomen of the wearer, I deem said bones a valuable improvement in woven corsets, whether the pockets therefor be formed in part by stitching or wholly by the operation of weaving; and I contemplate the production of corsets in which these hip-gore bone-pockets will be woven in a manner similar to the weaving of ordinary bone-pockets in woven corsets, but of course involving the employment of pattern-cards designed by me and unlike any heretofore used in corset-looms.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A seamless woven corset having the se- 

